The left one looks like it was painted after a long and liquid lunch. The right one is so-so, but its human eyes are a bit unsettling.

Meanwhile in France, ca. 1390, while humans were having the Hundred Years War, cats, rats and from the scale, hummingbirds, had reached an understanding…

The artist of the Aberdeen Bestiary (ca. 1100s) got feline posture almost right, then let contemporary style requirements spoil it…

An artist doing marginals for the prayerbook of Queen Charlotte of France (ca. 1420s) had another try at the feline posture every cat-owner has seen…

While in 1480s Germany, another cat was painted doing something equally familiar - sitting off on one side to watch someone work…

In Ming Dynasty China (1368-1644) it’s clear that a cat up to no good looks the same anywhere…

And finally back to Europe during the Renaissance - in fact England during the last years of Elizabeth I (1601-1603) - for one of my favourite historical cat pictures.

Henry Wriothesley (pronounced Rizely) 3rd Earl of Southampton, was sent to the Tower of London for involvement in the Essex revolt. He was released when Elizabeth died and James I took over. During this worrying time (head ± shoulders = ?) his cat Trixie kept him company.

Trixie seems not to have liked the artist much…

…but he caught the expression just right, though Beemer is more supercilious than outraged because cameras don’t smell of paint…